Air-Purifying Furniture and Aromatherapy Bathtubs: The Best (and Wackiest) Smart Home Tech of CES 2023

LAS VEGAS—The CES 2023 show floor was teeming with devices to help you have a more connected and automated home in the new year. 

From a flashy refrigerator with color-changing LED light panels and an integrated speaker to a baby monitor that can alert you when your bundle of joy has soiled their diaper, we saw some impressive and wacky smart home innovations at the show this year. If you couldn’t make it to Las Vegas, no sweat—we’ve gathered the greatest in smart home gadgetry for you.

In no particular order, these are the most compelling smart home products we saw at the show this year. Most of them aren’t available yet (and some may never be), but even prototypes offer a peek at a more connected and convenient future home. 

Enabot EBO X

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

The Enabot EBO X is an adorable robotic family companion that can help you stay connected and safe. Featuring a 4K stabilized camera and two-way audio, it lets you monitor your home, room by room, and check on your loved ones from your phone when you’re not there. Using computer vision, it can identify faces and remind individual family members when it’s time to take their medicine. It can send you an alert if your baby is crying, when someone enters a restricted area of your home, and notify your loved ones if it detects you’ve taken a fall. It can even snap photos of the family, with automatic portrait centering to ensure everyone is in the frame.

Athom Homey Pro

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Billed as the “world’s most advanced smart home hub,” the $399 Athom Homey Pro promises support for more than 50,000 connected gadgets from more than 1,000 brands. Its companion Homey app (available for Android, iOS, and the web), is designed to help you control and automate your smart home devices from a single place. It covers all of the bases with support for Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave, 433MHz RF (for Europe, Asia, and Oceania), and Infrared (IR), plus Matter (coming in Q2 2023) and Thread (in Q3 2023). Featuring a quad-core ARMv8 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 8GB of onboard storage, the Homey Pro promises 3.5 times better performance and up to four times better wireless range than its predecessor. Already a market leader in Europe, Homey recently expanded to the US and Canada. The new Homey Pro is available for pre-order now and slated for release later this quarter. 

Roborock S8 Series

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Roborock’s S7 MaxV Ultra, launched last year, is one of the most self-sufficient, two-in-one robot floor cleaners we’ve tested, with the ability to empty its own dustbin, wash its own mopping cloth, and refill its water tank. This year’s lineup, the S8 Series, adds one notable feature already available on the rival Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni: warm-air mop drying to prevent bacteria growth and odor.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

The S8 series also boasts the strongest suction power of any Roborock robot vacuum (6,000Pa), a new dual roller bush system to prevent hair tangles, and the brand’s innovative VibraRise 2.0 automatic mop-lifting technology for homes with carpets. Priced from $749.99, the Roborock S8 Series will be available for purchase on Amazon and Roborock’s website in the US this April. 

LG MoodUp Refrigerator

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

LG’s upcoming MoodUp refrigerator is lit—literally. This flashy fridge features color-changing LED door panels you can customize whenever you like via LG’s ThinQ mobile app, so you can change it up to match your home decor, the season, or your favorite sports team’s colors. LG says it supports 1,800 different color combinations and even features a built-in Bluetooth speaker for impromptu kitchen dance parties. There’s no word yet on pricing, but the MoodUp is slated to launch later this quarter or in early Q2. 

LG PuriCare Aero Furniture

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Most air purifiers stick out like a sore thumb, but LG’s new PuriCare Aero Furniture is designed to clean the air and blend in with your home decor. Similar to the Ikea Starkvind, the PuriCare Aero Furniture is a side table with a built-in air purifier. It uses HEPA filtration to banish airborne allergens, and LG’s UVnano technology to keep its fan blades free of viruses and bacteria. Other perks include a built-in wireless charger for smartphones and wireless earbuds, eight different mood lighting settings, and connectivity with the LG ThinQ app so you can control it and monitor real-time air quality levels from your phone. There’s still no word on US pricing and availability. 

Chillax Giraffe AI, Thermo AI Smart Baby Monitors

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Chillax is expanding its lineup of smart baby wellness monitors with the $199.99 Giraffe AI and the $399.99 Thermo AI. The Giraffe AI uses machine learning technology to recognize your baby’s face and identify unsafe sleeping positions. It promises to send you an alert when your baby has rolled over or is sleeping with their face covered. The more expensive Thermo AI model can also detect core body temperature and toileting status, and send you an alert when it identifies a significant temperature change in the diaper area. Both models are slated to launch on ChillaxCare.com and Amazon in the near future. 

Kohler Stillness Bath

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

For the ultimate spa-like experience at home, check out Kohler’s luxurious Stillness Bath line. Priced from $7,938 to more than $17,000, this freestanding cube-shaped bathtub combines water, light, fog, and aromatherapy to help you unwind. Features vary by model, but imagine water filling from the bottom of the basin, spilling over the sides into its wooden floor base for a soothing sound. Mood lighting surrounds the tub as fog rolls off the surface of the water and essential oils diffuse into the air. The base Stillness Soak model is available now, and Kohler plans to launch a smart version you can control via the Kohler Konnect app and by voice later this year.

Kohler H2Wise Water Monitoring System

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Worried about household leaks or frozen pipes? Kohler’s new H2Wise smart water monitoring system can offer some peace of mind. The $400 DIY-friendly H2Wise hooks up under your sink and uses pressure sensors to monitor all the water lines in your home 240 times per second, 24/7. It works with the Kohler Konnect app so you can track your daily water usage for each fixture and faucet, and it will send you an alert if it detects a change in water pressure that might signal a potential leak or another plumbing problem. The system also provides pre-freeze warnings to help prevent frozen pipe bursts. 

Typhur Sous Vide Station

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Silicon Valley-based Typhur is taking the guesswork out of sous vide cooking with its new high-tech kitchen appliance. The all-in-one Typhur Sous Vide Station ($899) features guided recipes on its built-in 12.3-inch touch screen and presets for common proteins to help you master the French cooking method. With 1,750 watts of power and a double-layer insulated tank, it promises to heat 12 liters of water to 130 degrees Fahrenheit in 17 minutes, and it features a detachable vacuum sealer that charges while magnetically attached to the machine. It’s slated to launch later this year, but you can reserve one now for a $200 discount. 

Schneider Electric Smart Home Energy Ecosystem

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Schneider Electric unveiled a new suite of sustainability-focused smart home energy products to help combat high utility rates, power outages, and climate issues. The lineup includes a solar inverter, EV charger, smart electrical panels, and switches that work together and can be controlled via its Schneider Home app, which offers usage reports and energy-saving settings. The products can be purchased piecemeal or as a full suite. Schneider Electric says the complete ecosystem, slated to roll out over the course of 2023, will be “priced comparably with others on the market.” It will initially be available via US electrical distributors. 

Samsung Bespoke Built-In Appliances

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Samsung announced plans to launch its first Bespoke built-in appliances, including an AI Wall Oven and connected Wall Mount Hood, both of which will be available in a range of colors and finishes. The AI Wall Oven features a seven-inch color LCD that lets you navigate its cook settings and modes, including sous vide, air fry, steam cook, and more. This stylish built-in oven also features an artificial intelligence camera that can detect what you’re making and suggest optimal cook settings. Thanks to built-in Wi-Fi, you can preheat the oven, set timers, sync recipe settings, and view a live video stream of your food cooking via the SmartThings app.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

The Wall Mount Hood features an air quality sensor that tracks smoke and other air pollution levels as you cook, and sends this information to the SmartThings app. The hood also syncs with smart Samsung cooktops to intelligently adjust ventilation according to your cooking activity. Samsung expects to launch both in the US this year, but the company hasn’t yet announced pricing and availability details. 

Samsung SmartThings Station

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Samsung also unveiled the SmartThings Station, a hub designed to help you easily automate your devices. It features a physical button on top that you can program via the SmartThings mobile app to run three different smart home automations, triggered with a press, double press, and long press. It supports a range of devices including TVs, speakers, thermostats, lighting, power outlets, and more. As an added bonus, the SmartThings Station features a wireless phone charger on top that supports fast charging with Samsung handsets, and standard-speed charging for all other devices with support for this feature. I plopped my Apple iPhone 14 on top of Samsung’s demo unit and it started charging right up. Pricing hasn’t been revealed, but the device will go on sale in the US starting in February.

Bird Buddy Smart Bird Feeder

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Ornithologists will love the Bird Buddy, an artificial intelligence-powered bird feeder that can identify 1,000 species, notify you when one stops by for a bite, and capture their photo. Funded through Kickstarter, the product officially started shipping in September and is currently sold out, but you can place a pre-order for when it’s restocked in the near future. It starts at $249, or you can get a Bird Buddy with a solar-powered roof for $374.

Aiper Seagull Pro Robotic Pool Cleaner

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Having a pool is awesome—until you have to clean it. Aiper’s new line of cordless robotic pool cleaners, called the Seagull Series, do the work for you. Launching this March, the top-of-the-line Seagull Pro is meant for pools up to 3,200 square feet and boasts underwater GPS and mapping technology for efficient cleaning runs. It promises up to three hours of runtime on a charge, and all you have to do is empty the robot’s debris basket when it’s finished. The line also includes the Seagull Plus, meant for pools up to 1,300 square feet, with a runtime of around two hours. 

Moen Smart Sprinkler Controller, Wireless Soil Sensors

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Famous for its bathroom and kitchen fixtures, Moen is moving outside the home with its latest products. Expected to launch next month, Moen’s Smart Sprinkler Controller ($180) and Smart Wireless Soil Sensors ($80) work with your existing lawn irrigation system, letting you control and monitor it right from your phone. The idea is to keep your yard happy while only watering it when necessary. Moen says the system can reduce an average home’s irrigation water use by up to 30 percent, saving up to 15,000 gallons of water annually compared with a clock-based controller. 

The Best Smart Home Devices We’ve Tested

(Credit: Bob Al-Greene)

Of course, smart home devices aren’t new to CES 2023. We’ve tested hundreds of smart home products over the years in more than 20 categories to help determine which ones are best for every room in (and out of) the house. Check out our top picks.